Closed captioning of: Secretary Clinton visits chaotic Mid East
>>>
] that's a hit.
>>>
it's very exciting and very moving and to see where this revolution happened and all that it has meant to the world is extraordinary for me. we are trying.
>>
amazing scenes there.
hillary clinton
made a surprise visit to tahrir square this morning. the symbolic square of
egypt
's revolution, surrounded of course by tight security.
andrea mitchell
, she was there with the secretary. she joins us live from cairo, where she's interviewing the secretary very shortly and i got to ask you, tell us about this visit to
egypt
. is it -- has she at least repaired some of the damage they thought she was going to be facing when the students said they wouldn't show up?
>>
it was the leading student revolutionary leaders who refused to meet with her because they said the
united states
had supported mubarak for decades and late into their revolution and because the
tear gas
can canisters used against them were made in the
united states
. that said sh she's met with other people. had a very effective meeting at the embassy with survivors of family of an employee killed during the revolution and she's made contact with the new leaders. she's met with the
defense minister
. she's about to meet the head of the
arab league
, a very important player and may end up being the leader here. there are american concerns that
egypt
's
transitional government
, the military leaders here are moving too quickly in fact towards a democratic regime with a vote referendum on a constitution this saturday. there are complaints with many of the people who have met with clinton that they are not prepared for this and they think it's going to be shoved down their throat and not a real democracy.
>>
i got to ask you about
bahrain
and what's going on there. while
egypt
's the side of good news when it comes to revolutions,
bahrain
and what's going on in yemen and libya, not so good news. what is the secretary saying about saudi's role in
bahrain
?
>>
she is walking a
tight rope
on that as are all u.s. officials.
robert gates
, the
defense secretary
and people close to him saying he was not given a heads-up by the king of
bahrain
or any other leaders when he was there last friday that they were going to request the help from the
saudis
, the military help from the
saudis
, the uae and other leaders from the
persian gulf
countries. so this was really a case of the u.s. being blind sided, they say, now, the reports were out there, i reported, others reports the
saudis
were going to use
military force
. they didn't know the timing. the increasing violence is of great concern. she did make a call to the saudi foreign minister to complain and express her concerns, but how hard and how tough can you be with the
saudis
when they are our strongest military alally?
>>
you're about to sit down with secretary of state clinton. there is so much to ask her. i hope you get an hour with her because there's so much going on that we'd love to get answers to.
>>
they say not that long. give me some questions, chuck.
>>
there you go. you've got it. i can't wait to see the interview. thanks very much.
“ ”